02/11/2016 BBC News at Six

Murders, assaults and self-harming - prison officers issue a warning

As official figures show that violence in prisons continues

continues to rise, ministers hold urgent talks.

The prisons are a bloodbath at the moment.

They're causing mass hysteria for both our staff and prisoners.

We'll be asking about government plans for prison reform.

England and Scotland players want to wear poppies

on for their match on Armistice Day - Fifa says it's against the rules.

We want our players to be able to wear those poppies.

And I have to say to Fifa, that before they start

telling us what to do, they jolly well ought

Asda apologises after a BBC undercover investigation finds home

delivery crates as dirty as a kitchen floor.

With less than a week to polling day in the US election,

after all the twists and turns, we will be looking at what these two

candidates still have to do to become the 45th president.

pioneering surgery after suffering terrible burns

Leicester look to make more history tonight.

in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

The conditions in English and Welsh prisons has been likened

to a bloodbath by the head of the Prison Officers Association.

That stark assessment comes as the association has been

holding urgent talks with the Justice Secretary,

Liz Truss, about tackling increasing levels of violence

The government's set to unveil its plans

Our Home Affairs Correspondent June Kelly has more.

Prison works. The old conservative mantra repeated a few years ago by

Theresa May. But in some jails, this is Wandsworth, south London, earlier

this year, the government is facing an explosive combination of staff

shortages, violence and drug abuse. And some inmates are turning to the

latest technology using drones to smuggle inbound items. The basket

attached to this trial was carrying a consignment of this synthetic drug

Spies and mobile phones. It was intercepted. The prison officers

Association says the situation is at crisis point. Today they were set to

take part in an unofficial walk-out. It was called off after the Justice

Secretary agreed to an urgent meeting with PO PO a leaders this

afternoon. Can I ask you whether meeting? Prisons are a bloodbath at

the moment, they are causing mass hysteria for staff and prisoners,

everyone is in a really bad way. Prisoners are on their knees and we

hope the Justice Secretary can give some positive news for our members

and prisoners are like. Today the BBC obtained a letter from an inmate

at Pentonville where a prisoner was stabbed to death two weeks ago. He

writes, a wing was just locked down again because after ten o'clock

there were two violent incidents involving weapons. One involved what

looked like a kitchen knife with a blade of 10-12 inches. I have

frequently seen an individual set upon by half a dozen attackers in

the exercise yard. This was a fight over drugs in a prison yard. Rival

gangs and one person ended up with stab wounds. Current levels of

prison violence, drug taking and self harm shame us all. The words of

David Cameron nearly one year ago. While the political front line has

changed in the last 12 months those at the sharp end in the present

service have watched and experienced the situation simply getting worse.

The latest figures show that over the past year, there were 107 self

inflicted deaths. That is up 13%. 22,775 assaults, up 34% and 5954

attacks on staff, up by 43%. Tomorrow there will be a big

announcement from the Justice Secretary on the future of prisons

in England and Wales. Tonight at the end of their talks the prison

officers Association said it would mean nothing without safety

guarantees for all those on the inside, prisoners and staff. And

June Kelly is with me now. We are hearing about the prison reforms

tomorrow from the government, what should we expect? This should be

interesting, the first major announcement by Liz trust is Justice

Secretary. We want to see if she will continue their work of her

predecessor Michael Grove, seen as a reformer. She says this will be the

biggest overhaul in prisons in England and Wales for a generation

and she has spoken of ?1 million earmarked for new prisons but the

big issue for people at the coal face, the governors and the prison

officers as we heard is staffing levels. And what they say is never

mind the long term plans, we cannot do this job unless we have more

people and we need them now. The government said that one of the

difficulties they have is, while they can recruit staff, sometimes

they cannot keep them. So the challenge for everyone at the

Ministry of Justice is to make this a job that people want to go into

and then want to stay in. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Two children and a man have been found dead in a house

Police were called to the residence last night,

A woman was taken to hospital where she is in a stable condition.

Our correspondent, Dan Johnson, reports.

David Stokes, a 43-year-old father of two young boys. Detectives are

now trying to work out how he and his sons ended up losing their

lives. Adam was 11 years old, Matthew was five. This is their

house, where police were called at 930 last night after neighbours

reported disturbance. Negotiators were brought in and the stand-off

lasted until the early hours. A woman, believed to be David 's wife

Sally, was taken to hospital and is still being treated. The officers

entered the address found a male who has been pronounced dead within the

address. Tragically and very dramatically the officers, in

searching the address, have also found two deceased children. At this

stage the inquiries are at a very early stage and we are trying to

understand what happened last night in but also to understand the

circumstances leading these deaths. Police say it's still too early to

confirm how they died but they are not looking for anyone else. They

believe the key to the investigation is understanding fully what went

wrong here last night and in the lead up to and what tore a family

apart. Because police had contact with the family here last night

officials from the Independent Police Complaints Commission are now

overseeing this investigation. Neighbours have described this as a

nice family and they are completely stunned by what has happened in the

last 24 hours. They are struggling to understand what can have resulted

in a father and his two young boys ending up dead in the family home.

Thank you. Environmental campaigners have

won their latest legal battle to force the government to improve

plans to deal with harmful The High Court has ruled

that the government must Campaigners from ClientEarth argued

that the current plan would not The Department for the Environment

said it accepted the judgement. Our Science Editor David

Shukman joins me now. David, just how significant the

victory is this for the environmental campaigners?

It is incredibly embarrassing for ministers. The second time in two US

courts have ruled against them, today the High Court said government

plans to reduce traffic pollution don't go far enough and are not

moving quickly enough. We are talking about pollution that you

cannot see but can do real damage to your health, nitrogen dioxide. A

problem in London and in dozens of other places around the UK. The

government hopes to tread to clean up. It said it would by 2020 or

2025, the court said, not soon enough. The environment ministry,

Defra, says it will listen to the court judgment and not to challenge

it and look at its options closely which means it must come up with a

robust plan pretty thank you. Theresa May has described football's

world governing body, Fifa, as "utterly outrageous" for saying

it would be against its rules for England and Scotland

footballers to wear poppies during their World Cup qualifier

match on Armistice Day. Our Sports Correspondent Richard

Conway is outside Wembley. Richard? George, when England play

Scotland here on Armistice Day and there a full range of commemorations

planned, both England and Scotland want to wear a poppy on their shirt

or on an armband. Sheaffer say it is against their rules. Both sides

refuse to change the position -- Fifa say it is against their rules.

And today the Prime Minister got involved.

The football Association believed a deal of players displaying the poppy

had been brokered in 2011. England, Scotland and Wales asked Fifa to be

able to wear the remembrance symbol on their shirts or an armband when

they play on, or close to Armistice Day later this month. But speaking

to the BBC tonight the secretary-general of the governing

body said the rules would not be changed. Britain is not the only

country has been suffering from the result of war. Syria is one example.

My own continent has been torn by war for years. And the only question

would be why are we making an exception for just one country and

not the rest of the world? The row reached the House of Commons today

with the Prime Minister making her feelings on the issue and football's

world governing body abundantly clear. I think the stance that has

been taken by Fifa is utterly outrageous. Our footballers want to

recognise and respect those who have given their lives. Is my our safety

and security. I think it is absolutely right that they should be

able to do so. Premier League teams are free to display the poppy but

national teams must stick to the Fifa rules which ban any symbols of

political or religious significance on their clothes. The three home

football associations argue that the poppy does not have political

connotations. Talks will continue between all parties this evening at

Wembley but with Fifa showing no sign of backing down it is believed

the FA are increasingly minded to defy the governing body and risk

being punished. Richard Conway, BBC News, Wembley.

It seems some customers of the Asda chain received rather more

than their groceries when they used the supermarket's home

BBC One's Watchdog programme carried out an undercover investigation

after whistleblowers and customers raised concerns.

Tests of bacteria levels on some crates found some were "equivalent

Asda is one of the biggest providers of home shopping and

promises customers they can sit back and relax while their personal

shoppers pick and pack the items as carefully as you would.

But BBC Watchdog has heard from a number of

whistle-blowers from the company who raised

concerns about the state of

the crates, or totes as they call them, that shopping

The conditions of the totes are not monitored.

And I can tell they are dirty and I wear gloves.

Because I'm scared of catching something.

Raw meat, fresh vegetables, they are all being

Another whistle-blower got in touch with

photos of what he said he regularly sees on shift.

There is mould on a lot of the totes.

But you are not talking one or two, you

Some of the things that these are rolled in,

the mould, the dirt, it is not stuff I would feel comfortable

A recent change in the law has also made it all the

more important that groceries are delivered in clean crates.

In October last year England joined the

rest of the UK and introduced a 5p plastic bag charge.

Since then, the number of plastic bags used has

fallen by 85% and if you do the shopping

online you can cut out the

Watchdog tested out Asda's home shopping

service, ordering deliveries to ten houses across the country.

One crate from each delivery was swabbed and

sent to a government accredited microbiology lab for analysis.

Out of our ten orders, just one delivery

arrived in a crate that the lab deemed to be satisfactory.

Three were classed as acceptable, as for

the rest, three were dirty, one was very dirty, two were extremely

Give me an idea of how dirty we are talking, here?

Well, dirty would be, say, a typical kitchen floor.

And extremely dirty or very dirty would be the sorts of

levels that I would expect to find on the inside of the kitchen bin.

There could be dangerous bacteria harboured in the crates.

That's why they need to be cleaned and disinfected every time.

Asda told Watchdog that it had not lived

up to the standard of service its customers expect and said,

although some policies and procedures hadn't

been followed in the six stores involved it has taken immediate

action to permanently improve standards across all home shopping

And you can see more on that investigation on tonight's Watchdog

Prison officers have likened conditions in English and Welsh

jails to a bloodbath - they've been holding urgent talks

What's so special about these plants?

The space age experiments carried out by school children.

After coming out of international retirement, Celtic captain

Scott Brown is recalled to the Scotland squad for their

They're known as the Guinea Pig Club, a group of airmen

severely injured and burned during the Second World War

who underwent pioneering experimental surgery.

The techniques used by their plastic surgeon, Sir Archibald McIndoe,

had a lasting impact on modern medicine.

Just 17 survivors are still alive in the UK and today

they were honoured at a ceremony attended by the Duke of Edinburgh

at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Our Health Editor Hugh Pym has the story.

At East Grinstead, newly-knighted Sir Archibald McIndoe,

meets 227 members of the Guinea Pig Club.

They were known as the guinea pigs because the burns treatment

Little did they know then how much it would shape modern medicine.

That was a photograph of me in hospital.

Desmond O'Connell, who is nearly 97, is the oldest surviving member

How they did this in wartime, I don't know.

He was on a bombing mission in 1941 and suffered serious burns

Three times they operated because it wasn't quite right.

I had new eyelids, new ears and the backs

The Duke of Edinburgh has been the Guinea Pig

Today he unveiled a commemorative monument at the National Memorial

Arboretum with some club members there too.

The club is remembered at the Queen Victoria hospital,

still a specialist burns and plastic surgery centre,

The biggest thing is the philosophy of plastic surgery

Which was really the fact that you can treat these horrifically

burned patients and to do it by using techniques that

are considered now, to be standard, but then they were quite radical.

There's now a statue of Sir Archibald McIndoe with one

of his patients here in East Grinstead.

It was a community which welcomed the often severely disfigured

servicemen on visit from the hospital.

It became known as the town that didn't stare.

I was unfair to McIndoe and for years later, it wasn't

until I was a bit older and more wise, you realise just what he'd

It's a unique club and the members and their patron know,

there may not be too many more gatherings like this.

Police in the US state of Iowa say they've captured a man suspected

of killing two police officers in ambush-style attacks.

Both men were killed in the city of Des Moines while sitting alone

The motive for the killings is not clear.

Who should have access to your social media account

and what should they be able to do with it?

Well, today Facebook blocked the plans of one insurer to look

at young drivers' posts to help set insurance premiums.

Our correspondent Simon Gompertz is here.

It was one of our biggest car insurance companies, Admiral who

wanted to look at the likes and posts of young drivers and do a sort

of personality test. Look at writing style to see if they are organised

and punctual and tried to deduce if they would be safe drivers and offer

a reduced premium. But Facebook has stopped that saying they should not

be using this private information. It does point out how valuable this

information is and even Facebook users it when it sees what are likes

art and directs advertising towards us.

As the race to become America's next President tightens,

both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are spending

their final few days criss-crossing the country.

They're focusing their efforts on the key battleground states that

Christian Fraser has more more on how and where the presidential

Welcome to our virtual world of Congress.

Beneath this great dome of Capitol Hill, we are going to try

and bring a little more clarity to a race that has gripped us,

confused us, perhaps even shocked us.

Yet still, with less than a week to go to the vote,

we can't be sure which of these two candidates will become the 45th

In fact, it is still possible one of them wins the most votes

Think of this as not one election but 51 mini elections.

You will see each of these states is allocated a fixed

number of state electors, determined by the size

Altogether, 538 electoral college votes.

Obviously, it's these states with the because populations,

with the most state electors that become crucial.

So California, for instance, where Hillary Clinton to win 50%

of the vote plus one, and we expect her to do that,

then all 55 votes would go Democrat blue.

And then look how many other states Trump has to win to equal Now,

in these final frenzied days of campaigning, the focus falls

There are up to 13 of them and some big ones among them,

including that last one there, Ohio.

Ohio has not backed a losing presidential candidate since this

Now the national poll of polls has tightened.

The gap has got closer in recent days.

But really, it's the polling within those battle ground

If we colour them as some polls project it will go today,

then you will see nine go Democrat blue and four go red, including Ohio

and currently Florida, though only by a whisker.

There are around 320 million people in the United States.

On our graphic, everyone of these people represents 10 million voters.

Now, we can lose 103 million who are either children

60 million took part in the primaries, so we know they vote.

Taking the figures from the last election, we expect another

But that leaves some 90 million who never do.

And that's where the Trump campaign is pinning its hopes.

We have seen here in the UK, with the Brexit result,

people who don't ordinarily vote, can tip the balance

And don't forget, they are also voting to decide the make-up

The colour of these two Chambers will determine how

much power the next president will have.

Our North America Editor Jon Sopel is in Florida.

We've seen the arithmatic of what they have to do to win,

How are these candidates going to make their sums add up? If you had

asked me a few days ago, it would have been a normal battle stakes.

Since the FBI announcement, Donald Trump feels emboldened and he has

announced he is spending a lot of money advertising in Wisconsin,

Michigan in the North, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico in the

south-west. It is a sign of his growing confidence that things are

turning in his direction. Against that, it is still very tight and in

the places where Hillary Clinton needs to win, she is still doing OK.

But there is no room for complacency. In Florida, the number

of African Americans going out to vote seems to be down on four years

ago and that could cause Hillary Clinton big problems. Donald Trump

has great enthusiasm and Hillary Clinton has a great ground again.

John, thank you very much. Is it possible for astronauts

to grow their own food in space? That's what thousands of school

children have been finding out. They've carried out experiments

to see whether seeds that have been in space grow as well as those that

have stayed on Earth. Our Science Correspondent,

Pallab Ghosh has been Eating on the International Space

Station is a little different. The food is freeze-dried, bland and has

a life of its own. So the plan is for astronauts to grow their own

food. We are going to get a packet of these space seeds... Can seeds

survive in space? Earlier this year, Tim Peake sent seeds that had been

with him on the space station to 3000 schools and asked people is to

plant them alongside one that had stayed on earth. Today, at a special

conference, children came from across the country to hear the

results. They brought models, baguettes and even specially made

cakes for Tim. Experiment, run by the Royal horticultural Society,

showed space seeds grew almost as well as the earth seeds. It is a

boost to the possibility of growing crops in outer space? As well as

being a fun experiments, there is a fun side to this and it is to

improve our knowledge on how to improve growing food in space and

how seeds can survive the harsh conditions in space. The experiment

has inspired a new generation to the wonders of science. Who wants to be

a scientist? Why do you want to be a scientist? You get to do loads of

fun things and activities. You get to do different potions. I have

always liked science stuff. I don't know why. I have always liked it and

if I got the chance, I absolutely would.

We need to protect our plants to night from frost. The frost is

setting in now, as temperatures dipped quickly this evening. But a

change with weather fronts close to Scotland and Northern Ireland as the

night goes on, the coldest part of the night is round about now. Cloud

will increase with outbreaks of rain in the night. The clearer skies, the

coldest weather by morning in England and Wales and there will be

a few freezing fog patches in the Midlands and in south-east England.

Take care with any of those. Change tomorrow after today's Sunny spells

in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Cloud and outbreaks of rain feeding

into north-west England and western parts of Wales. Much of East Anglia,

mainly dry until after dark. Temperatures no less warm,

particularly where you have Cloud and outbreaks of rain. Maybe a few

late sunny spells for Northern Ireland. Some of the rain towards

East Anglia, South East England. Not very much. On Friday, the sunshine

comes back but there will be showers around on some of those heavy

running through northern Scotland, moving out of Northern Ireland

towards north-west England and West Wales. But some sunny spells. The

weekend, low pressure at this stage is moving away from us, but the flow

of air around the low pressure for the weekend coming down from the

north. A feed of colder air coming back towards us, but it is coming on

a stronger wind as well. It was mild for Harrow ween -- Hallowe'en.

Bonfire night will have to contend with the cold wind. A few showers

around the coastal areas but many inland areas will be staying dry.

That's all from the BBC News at Six, so it's goodbye from me,

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.